Utilities worldwide have for many years been seeking to have control of the energy consumption of their customers and adjust the consumption to match the utilities' generation and supply capacity. Measures have been suggested and introduced by utilities to achieve the above but, to date, the measures taken have not satisfactorily solved the problem. Consumers and commercial users have also been seeking a way to minimize wasted energy (or gas and water), reduce their monthly costs, take advantage of utility rates that vary during the day or week and otherwise maximize efficiency and device usage while accomplishing their business or household objectives. For both utilities and users, minimal success has been achieved, but a satisfactory comprehensive solution has not been found for discovery of resource waste and enabling utilities and users to make informed decisions about managing energy waste. Many company officers, when questioned about how and where energy is wasted, simply have no answer and thus no ability to improvement energy management.
A system that would give the resource user (buyer) a means to automatically, without undue impact on business or household objectives, control energy or other resource usage, eliminate waste and realize savings in monthly bills would be desirable. Such a system would also be desirable because it would provide one or more benefits: less energy or other resources wasted, less pollution for the environment, and, for electrical energy, fewer new transmission lines and new power stations, fewer blackouts, lower spinning reserves and/or other production and distribution advantages. Further, for large commercial users, who may negotiate rates and usage levels with provider utilities, having the ability to reduce and control resource usage places the user in a more favorable bargaining position. In addition, a system that would give a user more information about resource usage may permit the user to understand better the way resource use is related to achieving user business or household objectives. This better understanding may assist the commercial user in identifying waste, planning coordinated use of loads and achieving more efficient use of loads and related labor in business processes.
Current systems for resource use measurement and control are generally piecemeal. They provide too little information, too slowly and/or lack adequate intelligence for automatic control and require the user to close control loops. They also lack suitable control options. Simply turning off equipment will save energy, but this is not consistent with business process requirements. Resources must be saved, where possible, with minimum adverse effects on the business process (or consumer) goals.